Responsibility
by Radioactive Nerd
Summary: Season 3 episode 10. Verne learns an important lesson after breaking a window.


**Author's Note: I decided to write another episode that focuses on Verne. Let me just note that Marty McFly does not appear in this episode. Enjoy this tenth episode of season three, as there are only two more stories left for this season.**

**Disclaimer: Radioactive Nerd + claiming the rights to the Back to the Future Animated Series Big Lawsuit**

Hill Valley, California

August 1, 1992

3:09 PM

Averso Road was one of the best cul va sacs in Hill Valley. Kids from all over would play on it and there were very few cars that drove down it. It was the perfect spot for street hockey, skateboarding, rollar blading, freeze tag, and baseball. Perhaps the only fault about Averso Road was that it was where Biff Tannan's house was located. Biff would yank open one of his windows and yell at kids to "keep it down!" or "get off my property!". If Biff was in a bad mood, you wouldn't spot one single kid on that street. Today, however, "Biffosaurus" was dorment and Jules, Verne, and their friends were playing baseball in the cul va sac.

"Next player!" Jules called to the other boys. He stood beside a new invention of his that pitched the ball out like a machine in a batting cage. Jules invented it because he was the one that always was chosen to pitch and he stunk at it.

Verne was sitting on the curb with a bunch of baseball cards layed out before him. He was considering Jake's "tradable" cards, but nothing seemed to catch his mind. Jake and Verne were waiting for their turns at bat. Verne had a great swing but his teammates wanted to save him for a "secret weapon."

"I don't know Jake," Verne said to his friend. "None of these cards seem trade worthy for my Babe Ruth..."

"I'll trade ya Mickey Mantle _and _pay for the next time the ice cream truck comes," Jake said and Verne heartily agreed.

"Deal!" Verne said and they both spat in their hands and shook.

"Brother it is your turn!" Jules called and Verne picked up his bat and went over to the batting spot. This was for the win. Verne's teammates were cheering for him and the other team was begging for him to blow it. Jules met his brother's eyes and set the machine to the VERNE level. A level that was practically baseball expert.

"Swing us to victory Verne!" Jake yelled.

"No mess it up Verne!" Theo, the captain of the other team, yelled.

Verne positioned his feet and put all of his ten-year-old concentration on Jules' pitching machine. His older brother pulled the cord and a bright, white baseball shot out of the machine. Verne smiled and swung the bat as hard as he could, so he could make this ball go far. The bat successfully made contact and the ball soared up through the air. Verne's teammates began cheering, but then they all saw where the ball was heading.

CRASH!

Biff Tannan was reading his sport illustrated when a baseball broke though his window. It was going at such a speed that it didn't stop once it came through the glass, but knocked Biff upside the head.

"Ouch! What the?!" Biff said and picked the ball off of his floor. He turned angrily to see that the window was shattered and heard those nasty kids down there screaming. Those little buttheads where in big trouble...

"Oh crud," Verne said under his breath, as he stared at the broken window. His brother followed suit and just stood there, not really sure what to do. However, the other kids looked at each other and immediately knew what to do.

"Bye Verne, good luck!" Jake said as he and the other boys scrambled on their bikes and pedaled away from the scene of the crime. With a situation like this, it was kind of like every kid for themselves.

"You losers!" Verne called after them, even though the boys were quite far away. He looked back up at the broken window and realized what he had done and to who's house he did it to.

_Jules and I should get out of here too. _Verne thought.

"HEY YOU!" Biff's voice yelled.

_Too late._

Biff was yelling out of the broken window on the second story. He had a scary expression on his face that made Verne gulp. The boy looked down and realized he was still holding the bat and immediatly hid it behind his back.

"YOU LITTLE TWERP!" Biff roared from his busted window. "YOU BUSTED MY WINDOW! OH, YOU ARE GOING TO BE DEAD MEAT WHEN I GET DOWN THERE! I'M GONNA-"

Verne and Juled didn't stick around to hear the rest. They bolted!

"HEY GET BACK HERE BUTTHEADS!"

Jules and Verne ran the whole ten blocks home on pure adrenaline and fear. By the time they got home, they were panting and sweaty. Verne was so scared that he even locked the door behind them!

"You know, Verne, we should have stayed there," Jules said between breathes. His younger brother looked up at him like he was crazy.

"What! If you broke a Tannan's window would you want to stay there and face his wrath?" Verne asked and Jules shook his head. "I'm thirsty. Let's get some juice."

The boys headed into the kitchen to raid the fridge for some orange juice. Verne was the first to enter the kitchen and he saw that his father was in there talking on the phone to someone.

"Well I assure you that my sons wouldn't do something like that on purpose Tannan," Doc said into the phone.

Jules and Verne shared a pained look.

_Oh great, _Verne thought. _Biff told dad what I did. Now I'm gonna get grounded all over again. _

"No need to use that obscene language!" Doc said and hung up the phone. The scientist turned around and saw his two sons standing by the fridge guiltily. Doc didn't look infuriated or happy, so it was hard for Jules and Verne to tell what their father was feeling.

"Clara!" Doc called, not keeping his eyes off his sons. "Enter the kitchen please!"

Verne saw his mother enter the kitchen with her hair a mess and dirt smudged on her face. She must of been working in the garden for the day. She went over to her husband, who muttered what happened to her. Clara then turned to face her sons with a stern-mother look on her face.

_I'm in big touble. _

"Jules Eratosthenes Brown, Verne Newton Brown," Clara began and put her hands on her hips. "Did one of you break Biff Tannan's window with a baseball?"

Verne shifted uncomfortably and stared down at his sneakers. Jules glanced at his brother and a look of concern for his younger sibling crossed his face.

"It was me mother," Jules lied. "I was the one that fractured Biff's window with the baseball."

"Jules I'm surprised," Doc said and glanced back to Verne, who was staring at Jules in surprise. "Verne is what Jules stated true?"

"Yep every single word!" Verne said happily and tried to leave the room. Clara stepped in front of the doorway, blocking her son from leaving.

"Jules I know you want to protect your younger brother from trouble," Doc said. "But lying for his sake won't help him."

"Yes it will," Verne stated.

"Verny go to your room," Doc said and pointed to the stairs. "I'll be up there shortly to talk with you."

Verne stomped up the stairs with Einstein at his heels. Why did his parents have to be so smart? Jules could have just taken the heat and he would be home free! It was totally unfair that all the trouble ended up on his shoulders. It wasn't even his fault he broke Biff's stupid window! Verne was so angry that he slammed his bedroom door... twice.

The bedroom was freshly cleaned thanks to the insistence of Clara. The rug was vaccuumed and Verne gladly wiped his dirty sneakers on it. He plopped down on his bed and tossed a pillow at the door. Verne layed there on his back for a few minutes before grabbing a Western Willy comic off his nightstand. The ten-year-old distracted himself with the comic until his father knocked on the door.

"Verny may I come in?" Doc asked from behind the door.

"Yeah I guess so," Verne said as he tossed the comic aside. Doc came into the room and sat himself down on his son's bed. "You gonna yell at me?"

"No I am not," Doc said and was a little shocked at Verne surprise at this. "I am not because I know it was an accident and your mother does too. Verny I am not angry that you broke Biff's window but I am dissapointed at how you reacted to your action."

"What do you mean pop?" Verne asked. "I couldn't stick around there! Biff would of killed me!"

"I know Tannan can be a big frightening man and I can understand why you ran. What I don't understand, however, is that your brother went forward to take the blame for your action and you were just going to allow it. Verne that was very selfish."

"Well I didn't want to get grounded again," Verne said matter-of-factly.

Doc looked at his son for a whole minute and then let out a sigh.

"Verny what I'm about to say is probably going to upset you," Doc began. "After you went upstairs, I contacted Biff to converse about what to do. The only thing that stubborn mule and I could agree on was that you need to pay for that broken window-"

"But pop I don't have any cash!" Verne complained.

"I know, so Biff said that you could do odd jobs around his household to earn the money-"

"WHAT?!" Verne yelled and nearly fell off of the bed. _I can't work for Biff! _Verne thought. _That guy's a complete skunk head and he'll probably work me to death. No way. _"Hold up a sec' pop..."

"Don't you argue with me young man," Doc said in a stern voice. "You need to learn to take responsibility for your own actions. That's final." Doc then left the room and shut the door behind him. Verne slumped back down on his bed, pulled his coon skin cap off his head, and screamed into it.

_Unfair!_

Hill Valley, California

August 2, 1992

11:58 AM

Verne walked up to Biff house and just stood in front of the door. He had been practically dragged here by his parents and wasn't looking forward to entering. It wasn't like Verne was scared or anything he just thought he didn't belong here.

_I could run. _Verne thought. _Could run all the way to Jake's house and play that new Barbarian video game he got. Biff would tell dad though and I'd get into more trouble. I guess there's no way out. _

The ten-year-old knocked on the door and Biff yanked it open. The man looked down at Verne and smirked. He had a tacky visor on that had "LAS VEGAS" printed on it and was holding a can of brown paint.

"Well, well, well," Biff said and his smile grew wider. "My snot-nosed little worker is here. Guess what you're going to do today kid? Paint my garage!"

Biff shoved the paint can and a brush into Verne's hands and the boy grumbled over to the wall. The boy figured that he would start off from the lower part of the garage first and work up. Verne dipped the brush into the ugly brown paint and wiped some of it on the place. He turned to Biff and gave a fake smile that made Verne feel sick.

For the next couple of hours, Verne worked on painting Biff's garage. It was pretty hot today and the ten-year-old was sweating up a storm. Verne had even taken off his coon skin cap because it was too hot and shoved it into his back pocket. As Verne worked his butt off, Biff was relaxing in a lawn chair with a can of coca cola. Biff would call up to Verne, who was up on a ladder working on the upper part, just to crack jokes or taunt the boy.

"You're getting off easy kid!" Biff yelled up as he drained the coca cola. "If this were all up to me you'd be doing much harder and dirtier work, like oil changing a car!"

"I'm almost done!" Verne yelled down and discovered his voice was a little hoarse and dry. _Next time I'm bringing a water bottle. _the boy thought.

"Better be," Biff said and opened another coca cola can. Just then a scream of bike tires were heard and Biff turned to see his son jump of a bicycle and stomp over. Biff jr. went over to his father and then caught of glimpse of Verne painting the garage.

"Hey dad what's going on? What's racoon head doing here?" Biff jr. asked.

"Ah the butthead broke my window so he's workin' for us now," Biff said. Biff jr. got a cruel smile on his face like this was the best news in the world. He dashed inside the house and soon came out with a red cooler. Biff jr. opened it and took out a hard-packed snowball. Snickering, he put the saved snowball into his sling shot and aimed it.

"Her Verne! Why don't you cool off!" Biff jr. said and shot the snowball straight at the ten-year-old. Verne manuevered and managed to avert the snowball but his movement made the ladder wobble. In his fight not to fall, Verne slopped brown paint all over his jeans and sneakers. Biff jr. laughed his head off and Verne, wanting to kill the guy, just bit his tongue and finished the paint job infuriated.

Verne left the Tannan property gladly and called Doc from a pay phone. The scientist showed up in the van with a kids meal from Burger King. Verne was happy at this and woofed down his food.

"How did everything go today?" Doc asked and then saw the brown paint all over his youngest son's pants. Verne was leaning on the window drowsily and looked over at his father.

"It wasn't my fault," Verne said and then fell asleep. They drove back home and Doc carried Verne all the way up to bed.

Hill Valley, California

August 3, 1992

4:37 PM

The lawn mower was too big for Verne as he pushed it along the Tannan front yard. He had been doing alot of little jobs today that Biff was probably too lazy to do himself. Verne had mopped the kitchen floor, hung up a bunch of clothes on the clothesline, and changed almost all of the lightbulbs in the house. Of course Biff jr. had wanted to take advantage of the new worker, so he had considered Verne his "slave."

"Done," Verne said and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He took a long sip of his water bottle as he pushed the lawn mower into the garage. After Verne exited the garage, he heard Biff jr.'s stupid kazoo blowing.

"Oh crud, now what?" Verne grumbled as he ran into Biff's house and went up to Biff jr.'s room. The bully was relaxing on the bed and playing his game boy. Verne stood in the doorway waiting for whatever stupid task the bully would give him.

"Refill," Biff jr. mumbled and pointed to an empty glass. Verne grabbed the glass and headed for the door, but Biff jr. blew that kazoo again.

"What?" Verne asked.

"I need you to do something else," Biff jr. said and pulled out a ratty binder from behind his pillow. He tossed it to Verne and it landed at the ten-year-old's feet. The binder was full of math and english worksheets that had cheeto fingerprints on them.

"I'm _not_ doing your summer school work!" Verne said indignantly and threw the binder back at Biff jr. The bully caught it with his left hand and set down his game boy.

"You have to do what I say or I'll tell my dad," Biff jr. threatened with a scowl. The boys just stared at each other challengly for awhile. "Do it _now."_

"NO I'M SICK OF THIS!" Verne screamed and left the room. The ten-year-old was red-faced and so angry it wasn't funny. He didn't care if Biff knew he was leaving early, he had had _enough. _Verne jumped on his own bike and pedaled away from the Tannan house and all the way to his own nice home.

Verne leaned his bike against the barn and headed over to the tree fort. It was a tree house that Doc had built for his sons when they had moved in. Jules and Verne often hung out in there whenever they played a holographic board game or just wanted to chill. Verne punched in the secret code, went inside, and threw himself onto the red bean bag chair.

"Something wrong brother?" Jules asked from behind Verne.

"I came home early," Verne said and then remembered he was angry. "Beat it, Jules, I want to be alone."

"I do not wish to leave," Jules said. "It's my tree fort too."

Verne didn't respond and instead buried himself deeper into the bean bag chair.

"So I estimate that the employment is not running smoothly," Jules said and turned away from his chemistry set.

"It's running horrible!" Verne stated and brought himself out of the bean bag. "Biff makes me do all these stupid little things and his jerkwad son thinks I'm his slave. You know what Biff jr. tried to make me do? He was gonna make me do his summer schoolwork.! I couldn't take it anymore, Jules, so I got the heck out of there."

"Sorry Verne," Jules said and took a seat in the bean bag next to his brother.

"I just wish that I would have never broken that stupid window!" Verne vented and buried his head in his hands. Jules patted his younger brother on the back, trying to be supportive.

"Wait a second!" Verne suddenly yelled when he got an idea. "I can take the DeLorean back in time and stop myself from breaking the window!"

"Verne I don't think that is a good idea," Jules said. "You can't go back and prevent something like this you have to be responsible and accept the fate of your actions. Mother and father think you are not responsible and going through with that plan will just prove it to them."

"Aw what do you know," Verne said and left the tree fort. He snuck into the lab and discovered that it was empty (Doc was in the garden helping Clara pull up weeds). Verne went over to the DeLorean excitedly and got inside. He set the time circuits to August 1, 1992 at 3:12 PM and then blasted off.

Hill Valley, California

August 1, 1992

3:12 PM

Verne parked the time machine behind a deserted house and rushed over to the cul va sac. He hid behind some trash cans and tried to spot himself. Verne figured that when his other self went up to bat, he would go up and stop him. Then the window wouldn't get broken and he wouldn't have to go and work for Biff and Biff jr. Perfect.

"Brother it is your turn!" earlier Jules called, and the other Verne got up from the side walk. Verne got ready to run up there and stop himself, but somehow... he couldn't.

_Come on Verne! _Verne thought. _This is simple. Just go up there and stop yourself from breaking the window. Why is this so hard? _

His feet wouldn't budge and his gut tightened with guilt. Verne started hearing the words of his mom, dad, and brother echoing through his mind-

_"You have to be responsible and accept the fate of your actions," _Jules' voice said.

_"You need to learn to be responsible," _his father's voice said.

_"I love you Verne, but you have to stop acting so selfish," _his mother's voice said.

_"Mother and father don't think you're responsible and going through with that plan will just prove it to them," _Jules' voice repeated.

Verne realized what he had planned to do was the wrong way to deal with the situation. His family was absolutely right in saying that he was an irresponible boy and that he had to grow up and accept the consequences. Verne sighed and watched himself go up to bat and swing a home run. The ball few through the air and smashed through Biff's window. Then the ten-year-old went back to the DeLorean and returned to the future.

Hill Valley, California

August 3, 1992

5:02 PM

"Verne Newton Brown!" Clara yelled from behind her youngest son. She had seen the DeLorean drive up to the lab and Verne get out of it. Clara knew that Verne knew that going on lone trips back or forward in time was against the rules.

"Jules you told on me?" Verne asked, but his brother shook his head "no."

"Verne did you travel back in time in order to erase the baseball incident?" Doc asked.

"I did at first," Verne began and walked up to his parents. "But when I got there and saw me, the other me, I couldn't do it. It was weird. I kept remembering everything you guys said about me being irresponsible and I ended up not preventing the broken window. It just felt like the wrong thing to do so I bolted back to the future."

Clara and Doc looked at each other and then at their youngest offspring. They felt proudness in them that Verne finally had learned this lesson.

"I'm proud of you," Clara said and hugged her son.

"As am I Verny," Doc said happily. "Very proud."

"Does this mean Verne doesn't have to remain employed by Biff," Jules suddenly asked.

"Yes," Doc said and Verne cheered. "If Verny has learned his lesson than we feel he doesn't have to go through with that job anymore."

_Yeehaw! No more working at the Tannan house anymore! _Verne thought. _I guess learning to be responsible has its perks! _

END


End file.
